Local Catholic Professor teaches Hell doesnt exist

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tipiloschi

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I went to a lecture last night of a local professor from a catholic university who taught that hell actually does not exist. . .

I know all the basic responses like CCC1035 and a slew of supporting scriptures, anything else to add?

This guy is constantly criticizing all of my teachings as too ‘close-minded’ and ‘narrow’ and when I questioned his teaching last night he reamed me to no end. Anyhow he said he was tired of all my ‘conservative’ antics and has challenged me to an open debate on hell.

Of course I accepted. So I am hoping to use the forum as part of my prep

Im trying to build off of collective wisdom 🙂
 
Tell him, “Professor, I have been to your classes. Therefore, I don’t believe there is a hell. I KNOW there is one.”
 
I can tell you much scriptural support for Hell. If he still contradicts the Bible then he is a heretic. I do not recommend calling he or she a heretic though unless it is needed to get the point across.

Numbers 15; 1 Samuel 28; Job 7, 10, 14, 19, 20, 26, 38, 40; Psalms 15; Song of Songs 8; Ecclesiasticus 21; Book of Wisdom 1, 16; Ezekiel 26; Matthew 16, 18; John 2; Acts 2; Romans 10; Ephesians 4; 1 Peter 3, 4; Revelations 1, 14.

I know that these are all chapters so it will be hard to understand them all. I know specific scriptures would be more helpful, but these chapters contain the proof of Hell. If you need any help understanding them I will be happy to help. God speed.
 
If a man chooses not to love God, what is God to do with him? He would have to let him go to a place away from God. He cannot take him to heaven and force the man to love him right?

The other thing is, there is all the Scripture that is revealed by God, and Jesus that hell is real. Does this mean God is kidding? I don’t believe God would kid about a thing like hell.

There are penalties in life for crimes , it makes sense that their is a penalty for injustice in the spiritual world.

Hell might be the knowing what we were intended to have with God , but do not have it, due to our sins. I think that would be hell.

Oh, I think there is a hell, it is hate, the opposite of what God is, which is love.

I am keeping my eye on heaven.😉
 
This guy’s issues run deeper than Hell (pun intended). His issue is authority–if he does not believe the Church is authoritative, he won’t believe in Hell. He’ll pull out some argument that the Greek for everlasting doesn’t actually mean eternal or some ancient fathers who expressed a belief in apocostasis.

Here is Pope Benedict XII infallibly defining that those who die in mortal sin descend into Hell:

“Moreover we define that according to the general disposition of God, the souls of those who die in actual mortal sin go down into hell immediately after death and there suffer the pain of hell.”

Benedictus Deus (On the Beatific Vision of God)1336

And here is the Council of Florence (1439) doing the same:

“But the souls of those who depart this life in actual mortal sin, or in original sin alone, go down straightaway to hell to be punished, but with unequal pains.”
piar.hu/councils/ecum17.htm
 
Thanks everyone. Now what about an argument that Hell is not a place but rather a state of being?
 
Thanks everyone. Now what about an argument that Hell is not a place but rather a state of being?
States of being or a states of existence require a place…otherwise there is no possibility of being. Existence requires placement.

Err um…see…um er Thomas Aquinas
 
Tipiloschi,

I would like to wish you all the best in your debate with this professor.

I would keep harping on the fact that you are not making any of this stuff up. You are quoting from the Catechism and the Bible and they are pretty clear on the subject. All you are is the bringer of the news that this is what the Church teaches.

If you want something from the other side, saying that there is no Hell, I recommend a book called “Good Goats.” I’ve forgotten who wrote it, but its theme is that “the Catholic Church doesn’t necessarily teach this, but it should.”
  • Liberian
 
Of course the CCC will help, plenty of things there backing up hell. Writings of the Saints and Church Fathers regarding hell might help. Also, ask him why, if there is no hell, we should be trying to live good, moral lives?

Scripture you can use:

Matt. 3:12; Luke 3:17 - John the Baptist said the Lord will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. This unquenchable fire is the state of eternal separation from God, which the Church has called “hell” for 2,000 years. Some Protestant communities no longer acknowledge the reality of hell.

Matt. 25:41 - Jesus says, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Matt. 25:46 - Jesus says, “they will go away into eternal punishment” which is in reference to this eternal fire.

Mark 9:47-48 - Jesus refers to hell as where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. It lasts forever.

2 Thess. 1:6-9 - the angels will come with flaming fire and the disobedient will suffer punishment of eternal destruction. It is important to note that “destruction” does not mean “annihilation,” as some Protestant denominations teach. It means eternal exclusion from the presence of God.

Jude 6-7 - the rebelling angels, and Sodom and Gomorrah, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Rev. 14:11 - the worshipers of the beast suffer and the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever.

Rev. 20:10 - they’re tormented in the lake of fire and brimstone day and night forever and ever.

Isaiah 33:14 - “Who of us can dwell in the everlasting fire?” This is a reference to hell which is forever.

Isaiah 66:24 - their worm shall not die and their fire shall not be quenched. We cannot fathom the pain of this eternal separation from God.

Jer. 15:14 - in my anger a fire is kindled which shall burn forever. Hell is the proper compliment to the eternal bliss of heaven.

Judith 16:17 - in the day of judgment the Lord will take vengeance on the wicked and they shall weep in pain forever. Hell is a place that sinners have prepared for themselves by rejecting God, who desires all people to be saved in His Son Jesus Christ. God sends no one to hell.
 
Church Father’s writing you can use:

“If any one confesses Christ Jesus the Lord, but denies the God of the law and of the prophets, saying that the Father of Christ is not the Maker of heaven and earth, he has not continued in the truth any more than his father the devil, and is a disciple of Simon Magus, not of the Holy Spirit.” Ignatius of Antioch, To the Philadelphians, 5 (A.D. 110).

“…Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, ‘every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess’ to Him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all; that He may send ‘spiritual wickednesses,’ and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire; but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love, some from the beginning of their Christian course, and others from the date of their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory.” Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1,10,10 (A.D. 180).

"…thus also the punishment of those who do not believe the Word of God, and despise His advent, and are turned away backwards, is increased; being not merely temporal, but rendered also eternal. For to whomsoever the Lord shall say, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,’ these shall be damned for ever; and to whomsoever He shall say, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you for eternity,’ these do receive the kingdom for ever, and make constant advance in it; since there is one and the same God the Father, and His Word, who has been always present with the human race, by means indeed of various dispensations, and has wrought out many things, and saved from the beginning those who are saved, (for these are they who love God, and follow the Word of God according to the class to which they belong,) and has judged those who are judged, that is, those who forget God, and are blasphemous, and transgressors of His word.” Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4,28,2 (A.D. 180).

“But do you also, if you please, give reverential attention to the prophetic Scriptures, and they will make your way plainer for escaping the eternal punishments, and obtaining the eternal prizes of God.” Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus, 1:14 (A.D. 181).

“[T]hese have further set before us the proofs He has given of His majesty in judgments by floods and fires, the rules appointed by Him for securing His favour, as well as the retribution in store for the ignoring, forsaking and keeping them, as being about at the end of all to adjudge His worshippers to everlasting life, and the wicked to the doom of fire at once without ending and without break, raising up again all the dead from the beginning, reforming and renewing them with the object of awarding either recompense.” Tertullian, Apology, 18:3 (A.D. 197).

“Therefore after this there is neither death nor repeated resurrections, but we shall be the same that we are now, and still unchanged–the servants of God, ever with God, clothed upon with the proper substance of eternity; but the profane, and all who are not true worshippers of God, in like manner shall be consigned to the punishment of everlasting fire–that fire which, from its very nature indeed, directly ministers to their incorruptibility.” Tertullian, Apology, 48:12 (A.D. 197).

“[T]he world when thou shall know what it is to live truly in heaven, when thou shalt despise that which is here esteemed to be death, when thou shalt fear what is truly death, which is reserved for those who shall be condemned to the eternal fire, which shall afflict those even to the end that are committed to it.” Letter to Diognetus 10:7 (A.D. 200).

“Of which voice the justification will be seen in the awarding to each that which is just; since to those who have done well shall be assigned righteously eternal bliss, and to the lovers of iniquity shall be given eternal punishment.” Hippolytus, Against the Greeks, 3 (ante A.D. 225).

“Oh,what and how great will that day be at its coming, beloved brethren, when the Lord shall begin to count up His people, and to recognize the deservings of each one by the inspection of His divine knowledge, to send the guilty to Gehenna, and to set on fire our persecutors with the perpetual burning of a penal fire, but to pay to us the reward of our faith and devotion!” Cyprian, To Thibaris, Epistle 55 (58):10 (A.D. 253).

 
Besides his view, I think there is a huge point being missed here. Why is he teaching at a Catholic University? They had a great show on EWTN sunday night about how liberal the Catholic Universities have become. Mostly due to the part of the church handing them over to Boards of Trustees. However, a really good suggestion was made. The Bishops can issue a diocesan statement saying they do not recommend Catholics attend that University because they are not in accordance with the Church’s teachings. Its really a shame that this kind of stuff is happening.
Peace
 
If he doesn’t believe in Hell, does he also not believe in Satan?

How far into the depths of disbelief has he fallen?

By the way, what department is he in?
 
I believe somewhere in the book of Revelations it explicitly talks about Hell as a place. In the last few chapters I think. God speed.
 
A young man once told Saint [Padre] Pio that he didn’t believe in hell. Saint Pio told him not to worry; he would believe when he got there.
 
I don’t have Chapter and verse in front of me at the moment, but didn’t Jesus refer to hell as Gehenna <sp?>, in Sacred Scripture?
And if Jesus, The Lord GOD, Himself believed in it, who is this professor to contradict Him?

I hope this man doesn’t refer to himself as a Catholic, but either way; he shoudn’t be teaching at a Catholic college. Dear God!

God Bless.

In His Most Sacred ❤️,

Denise
 
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